


Spirits Say Jump, You Say How High

by Onithephoni



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Avatar Midoriya Izuku, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 06:15:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29647026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onithephoni/pseuds/Onithephoni
Summary: Midoriya Izuku really hadn't expected to be climbing mountains made of discarded dreams (hint, they are fucking sharp and hurt like a bitch) or jumping into the enormous butt-looking mouth (Raava, it had better be a mouth or I swear to god-) of a spirit octopus, but sometimes he has to do what he has to do to not be brutally murdered by an entity older than time before he can legally drink.Or Midoriya Izuku is reincarnated with Raava, making him the Avatar. Kind of. Ish. There's only one problem; he's totally, utterly powerless. None of the traditional bending of Avatar's of old (really old). And there's only one way to prepare himself for the upcoming battle; get as many spirit gifts as he can possibly get. Unfortunately, it means doing a lot of favors, and not always the pleasant kind.
Kudos: 1





	1. A Disturbance in the Force

Time was meaningless- after all, how long had it been? A dozen years? Hundreds?

_Thousands,_ answered a resonating baritone voice to the unasked question.

Strands of white hair, yards long drifted in the small pool of glowing water, rainbow fractals gleaming on the the low crystal ceiling. Wrinkled limbs bound by glowing halos of light at the wrists and ankles kept the ancient, pruned woman spread eagled on the surface of the water. Her captors had long since perished and forgotten about their prisoner, but in their infinite cruelty they did not free her. She couldn’t even recall who her captors were. Who _she_ was.

_Korra,_ whispered a light soprano tone.

Korra. That sounds right.

_Aang!_ A familiar female voice called out.

Oh that sounded right too…

_Korra,_ repeated the soprano.

_Iroh._ Hummed an elderly man’s voice.

Hmm. Not quite the same, but not unwelcome.

_Korra,_ the melodic voice pleaded.

_Korra. Korra._ A second, deeper voice joined the first.

_korRA. KORRA. KORRA!_

Korra’s eyes opened, and there was light. Her back arched, but her limbs stayed sprawled out, buoying as the water in the cave began sloshing violently, the fractals on the wall appearing to enter a frenzy. The glowing water began to grow brighter, and a malevolent violet illuminated her breast.

Korra’s voice, parched with disuse, screamed. It was a haunting sound, amplified by the crystal walls of the cave and not nearly drowned out enough by the rough splashing of the spirit water pool. Korra’s eyes were beaming blue lamps- impossibly bright yet outmatched by the continuously shining water which had grown to a blinding white that was colder than freezing but did not freeze. Instead, it burned- oh, how it burned.

The old woman’s screams reached a new octave with this fresh torture, her stupidly long snow-white hair pushed at the whims of the waves as the purple parasite crept from her chest towards her face, visibly spreading like an infection, branching out under her skin. The lights of her eyes fought hard, the soft blue light pushing back at the infection... but then the light flickered. And flickered again. _No!_ an anguished voice cried. And then it was gone. The cave fell dark, the spirit water grew dim, and the screams and the voices that were never quite stopped cut off sharply.

Then just as suddenly it was made dark, the lights of her eyes returned and the spirit water grew bright, but with a rich, royal shade of violet instead of the original teal. A deep laugh echoed in the chamber that definitely didn’t belong to the old lady who’s mouth it emerged from.

“You’ve made a mistake Raava. By destroying me, you let me in. Now _I_ am the new Avatar. A _Dark_ Avatar.” The old woman’s voice stretched impossibly wide to accommodate the booming laughter that filled the small cave. Then silence. Her head turned sharply to glare at her right wrist. The circling halo of light on it began to turn purple, before a cracking sound filled the chamber as the circlet shattered like glass, dissolving into the water.

A pleased smile adorned her wrinkled face as she rolled her wrist, so wide it hurt.

_No! Korra!_ Cried a faint voice.

Korra felt like she was being held under a plastic bag. She was suffocating. It hurt. Everything hurt- but it kept going. There was never the sweet release, the final end that would normally accompany this suffocating feeling. She felt like a stranger in someone else’s body- she felt horrified, but not sure why.

The old woman turned her head towards the other wrist and raised a long, sharp fingernail to the halo. It cut through the halo like butter, freeing the other hand with ease

_Korra, please!_ It was louder now. Who was that? Why do they want her, what could she do? _What can’t you do?_ was whispered by a soft, familiar alto.

Blue light burst from her chest and rapidly overtook the purple with ease. Several voices were screaming, at least one of which was Korra’s own. Her arms whirled wildly, weak and thin with atrophy, the skin hanging limply from her bones- but still she moved. The water whipped around in the shallow cave as the purple was forced back toward her chest. The light pulsed wildly in rebellion, seeming to grow weaker and smaller as the water glowed with a radiant golden light. It was working flawlessly until Korra felt her arms began to grow tired.

“No,” she croaked. “NO!”

This was important. She wasn’t sure why but she needed to do this… But she was so weak. Her arms drooped, shoulders burning with their weight. Tears streamed down her face and she gave an anguished cry as the purple light pulsed wildly before ripping through her. The water in the pool burned hot and was so cold it stung as the light ripped through the cave with a deep humm that permeated the air, rattling her bones.

“You may have bought yourself some time Raava, but I still win this one,” announced the beam as it tunneled through the walls with ease, its haunting laugh lingering in the chamber for long after it had disappeared.

The light from the pool had died as the sunlight poured in from the outside. The water glimmered like rubies in its brilliance, tears dripping into the pool from the sides of Korra’s pale face. The light in her eyes dimmed with the pool, her ivory ribs reaching toward the sky like grasping fingers looking for salvation.

A boy with a patch of green hair and glimmering emerald eyes cried as he opened them for the first time.


	2. The Book Thief

Green eyes blurrily blinked open. It was still dark in the room, the curtain blowing lazily as the warm summer air wafted in from the open window. _Open?_ He softly closed his eyes again, dismissing it and determined to sink back into his dream of being All Might’s sidekick.

A quiet shuffle on the far side of the room alerted the young boy that he wasn’t alone, eyes flying open in silent alarm. As quietly as possible, Izuku reached for the lamp on the red and blue nightstand beside his bed. With a click that sounded all too loud in the silent room, the dark was chased away by a soft golden light that illuminated the room.

Standing on its hind legs was a slim navy grey dog that had Izuku’s most recent journal in its mouth, the _For the Future #3_ written on the front cover just barely visible out of the corner of its mouth. Izuku let out a scream and the dog let out a startled whine as its nails scrambled for purchase on the smooth wooden floor before it managed to find enough traction to dive out of the window.

“Hey! Wait!” Izuku yelled, as he scrambled out of bed to chase the dog, feet getting twisted up on All Might’s face- as if the figure decorating the comforter were attempting to swallow him whole- and instead eating floor. “That’s mine!”

Finally extricating himself from the blanket, Izuku ran to the window and looked out; the city of Musutafu was spread out before him, lights blinking even at this time of night, but there was no sign of anything suspicious, much less a dog who steals journals. His mom burst into the room at the moment, her hair in a long messy braid and breathing heavy. “Izuku?! What happened?”

“Mom! There was a dog in here! And he took my journal- the one I spent hours drawing Best Jeanist in yesterday- and jumped outside!” Izuku rambled, before settling into a pout.

Inko entered the room and set her hand in Izuku’s jade curls, ruffling them shortly before pulling him into a hug. She took the chance to peer out the window. “A dog? Izu, baby, we live on the seventh floor, are you sure it jumped out of the window?” _Better yet how it would get in_ , was left unsaid.

Nodding his head, Izuku looked up, “Yeah! With my journal! He was big but also reeeeeally skinny.”

Inko sighed and shook her head, “Well, I’ll have to get you a new journal then. It was probably just a curious spirit, but it’s probably best you keep your window shut from now on, okay?”

Izuku pouted but nodded at his mom’s words. Inko smiled tiredly and ruffled her son’s hair again and telling him to get to bed before taking her own advice. After getting settled back under his comforter, this time trusting it wouldn’t try to taste his toes, Izuku couldn’t help but think about the dog. He made a plan and sleep came easily soon after. That night he dreamed of a sprawling golden desert.

‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡

It was several nights later when Izuku was awoken again in the middle of the night, this time by the soft echo of nails clicking on the hard wood floor. Heart suddenly pounding a hundred miles a minute, Izuku was wide awake. Time to go through with his plan.

Flicking on his bedside light with one hand and flicking off the comforter while standing with the other- definitely _not_ a motion he had to practice- Izuku looked down on the dog who barked in alarm, making motions to bolt for the decidedly closed window. “Wait! I have something for you!”

The dog paused, although the momentum it had built up caused it to skid on its nails for a few feet. It turned to look back at him, and Izuku could see that it was not a dog, but a wolf.

Izuku beamed at the dog and quickly padded over to a drawstring All Might backpack he had gotten for free at a school festival a year ago. Grabbing the bag, Izuku turned to the wolf and held it out gingerly with a small bow, eyes closed tight. “Here Mr. Wolf Spirit! Since you liked my journal so much I made copies for you.”

The wolf stared at the boy and the boy peaked at the wolf with one eye, his smile faltering. “Of course I misunderstood, you don’t have to take it. Its my fault for thinking that since you took the other one that maybe you didn’t think my journals were creepy like Kacchan and maybe liked them but-“ Izuku didn’t get any further before the wolf had grabbed the bag from his hands and chuffed at him before looking at the window. Izuku blinked, flushing before he rushed to open the window, “Oh! Right! I got that for you.”

The wolf padded forward and glanced at the child. It seemed to think for a second before setting the bag down and trotting over to the small boy.

Izuku looked back at the dog as it approached, a little frightened despite everything, but relaxed when the wolf licked his face.

He giggled, unaware of the luminous saliva that had been spread with the lick that faded away just as fast, and rubbed the wolf’s head, right behind the ears. The wolf whined in appreciation before backing away and grabbing the All Might bag in its teeth.

With one final glance at the strange green haired boy, the wolf leapt out of the window, its body morphing into a beam of blue light that shot off into the night like a cannon.

“Wow…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is chapter 2. I decided to post it since it was already written, but these last two chapters are quite short. Loredump may be next chapter or in a few chapters, not sure yet. Anyway, enjoy!

**Author's Note:**

> First fic, let me know what you think :)


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